Combinatorial Methods in Complex Analysis

The theme of this thesis is combinatorics, complex analysis and algebraic geometry. The thesis consists of six articles divided into four parts. Part A: Spectral properties of the Schrödinger equation This part consists of Papers I-II, where we study a univariate Schrödinger equation with a complex polynomial potential. We prove that the set of polynomial potentials that admits solutions to the Schrödinger equation satisfying certain boundary conditions, is connected. We also study a similar problem for even polynomial potentials, where a similar result is obtained. Part B: Graph monomials and sums of squares In this part, consisting of Paper III, we study natural bases for the space of homogeneous, symmetric and translation-invariant polynomials in terms of multigraphs. We find all multigraphs with at most six edges that give rise to non-negative polynomials, and determine which of these that can be expressed as a sum of squares. Part C: Eigenvalue asymptotics of banded Toeplitz matrices This part consists of Papers IV-V. We give a new and generalized proof of a theorem by P. Schmidt and F. Spitzer concerning asymptotics of eigenvalues of Toeplitz matrices. We also generalize the notion of eigenvalues to rectangular matrices, and partially prove the multivariate analogue of the above theorem. Part D: Stretched Schur polynomials This part consists of Paper VI, where we give a combinatorial proof of the fact that certain sequences of skew Schur polynomials satisfy linear recurrences with polynomial coefficients.